Friday, February 16, 2007

Free Language Help: Knowing the history and roots of a word often make it easier to remember the word and its meanings. Douglas Harper's Etymology Online is a spectacular resource for learning word origins. I highly recommend this thorough and well-crafted resource.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Free Software: Not everybody can afford to pay for Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint and so on. Fortunately, you can download OpenOffice for free, and it's perfectly legal. In addition to a word process, spreadsheet and presentation program, OpenOffice includes a drawing tool, a database and a math editor. Very nice software and easy to use.

Free Writing Help: I am currently working on a list of commonly confused words in order to help students become better writers. I would appreciate it very much if people would view the current list and make suggestions for additions.

Free Innovation Idea: The country of Guyana has found a very inexpensive way to improve math scores using recordings distributed via radio and CD. The details are interesting, and if a country with one-fifth the population of Colorado and a GDP of $827M can produce this kind of material, how easy would it be for a rich country with ubiquitous Internet and iPod availability?

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Free Tool:Google Docs and Spreadsheets is a simple but powerful way for students to collaborate on projects over the Web. The documents are stored on Google's servers, and multiple students can collaborate on a document simultaneously. The site includes a chat window to allow collaborators to communicate about the documents as they edit them, and students have the option to publish completed documents on the Internet for others to view.

Free Tool: Take the official practice test for the ACT. Do not be intimidated by the unfamiliar material in the science; virtually everything you need to know to answer the questions is in the accompanying text and graphics.

Free Tool: Andrew Lyczak has produced an amazing site: ThatQuiz.Com, which lets you create custom tests in math topics from simple addition through calculus. Teachers can set up a whole class of students and assign quizzes, which the site automatically grades.